Could Hearthstone Players on iOS Soon be Buying Dust Instead of Card Packs?
Note: Blizzard has not yet made an official statement on the change.
Back in June, Hearthstone players in China were no longer able to buy card packs but instead were purchasing a small amount of Arcane Dust with their money. As a bonus for their purchase, card packs were thrown into the mix as a "gift" for their dust purchase.
Why did Blizzard make this change? This is because of a change to laws in China regarding loot boxes in video games where it was required for video games to publish the odds of their drop rates.
The shop interface for Hearthstone in China.
So then, why on Azeroth are iOS players potentially buying dust soon? That's thanks to a policy change in Apple's App Store.
The Apple App Store Update on Loot Boxes
In the Apple App Store guidelines, a document which details the rules app devs must follow to get through the app approval process, there is now a section which states apps need to make note of the odds of receiving each type of item to customers.
- Apps offering “loot boxes” or other mechanisms that provide randomized virtual items for purchase must disclose the odds of receiving each type of item to customers prior to purchase.
With this addition, it looks like Hearthstone will need to go the same way as it did in China to prevent disclosure of the drop rates which would be accomplished through giving players another object and tack on card packs as a gift. The alternative would be to cut the crap and officially state card drop rates which have been well known for years at this point. On the plus side if they do try to get around it by using arcane dust and not disclosing the odds, it's a little bit more dust in everyone's pockets which will help craft the powerhouses we need for our decks.
Rarity Distribution in Card Packs Today
Card rarity distribution hasn't changed since Hearthstone launched, though players will see slightly more Legendaries now thanks to a guaranteed Legendary in your first 10 packs for each set. The following rarity distribution is from our TGT community card pack opening and is still inline with other documented, more recent pack openings.
Rarity | Normal | Golden | Total | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Legendary | 696 | 0.94% | 56 | 0.08% | 752 | 1.01% |
Epic | 3029 | 4.09% | 143 | 0.19% | 3172 | 4.28% |
Rare | 16017 | 21.61% | 934 | 1.26% | 16951 | 22.87% |
Common | 52153 | 70.36% | 1097 | 1.48% | 53250 | 71.84% |
Total | 71895 | 96.99% | 2230 | 3.01% | 74125 | 100.00% |
We've also got some totally new information from Blizzard China from in May which was posted with loot box regulations in mind.
- You'll get at least 1 rare, or better, in each pack.
- An epic will be received, on average, in 1 of every 5 packs.
- Legendaries, on average, will be received in 1 of every 20 packs.
- As players open more packs, the actual probability of opening cards with higher quality increases.
It's possible we could see the above being enough for the Apple App Store and it wouldn't require Blizzard to provide the actual drop rates which means they won't need to move forward with giving users dust for their money instead.
Quote from BlizzardAccording to the relevant national laws and regulations, "slag legend" is now the probability of taking cards to publish, as follows:
Note: "slag legend" card package a total of five cards, including four different quality.
Rare cards
Each slag card package, at least to get a rare or higher quality card.
Epic card
An average of 5 slag card card package, you can get an epic quality card.
Legend card
An average of 20 slag card card package, you can get a legendary quality card.
In addition, it should be noted that: with the number of cards to increase the number of packages, players actually get high-quality card card probability will also increase.
Loot Boxes: How Do You Feel?
It's been a very popular topic in gaming communities over the past few weeks thanks to EA and their garbage with Star Wars: Battlefront II having absurd lengths of time being required for character unlocks unless you buy loot boxes and I'd like to know how everyone else feels about loot boxes both specifically with Hearthstone and then with other titles.
And before you comment, remember that developers in large companies usually aren't the people deciding how much stuff sells for and the drop rates for these; There's a whole different team of people to thank for this. Don't be a dick to game developers and call them out personally. Attacking developers, especially when they aren't even to blame for the fiasco, pushes them away from interacting with the community and then everyone gets upset no one comes out to talk with us anymore.
well I've had an awkward 5 gold sitting there for 2 years because of an arena run (which I hardly ever play). It's the worst.
Why 1% legendaries drop rate means 1 of every 20 packs? 1% is equal 1 of every 100.
each pack has five cards dude
3 EXPANSION A YEAR , at least you have to buy 260-350 pack which between 300$-375$ to earn all expansion cards . and that's fair and balanced huh .
What does a price have to do with fair or balanced game play :O? would fair and balanced be free? at least that way Hearthstone wouldn't exist, balance for all!
Fair and balanced would be pay $40 for the expansion and receive every card in that expansion. Problem solved.
Blizzard raised the loot boxes money for many countries also why there is golden cards with animation and better colours (50$ For crafting 1 golden legendary unlucky) plus 3 expansions in one year every expansion 260-350 to be completed and at 100 gambling loot boxes to get pretty much middle price deck. I hope we return like before video games not purchased in parts. I like how rainbow six siege sells by doing season pass every year and no need more even you can ignore it and collect to buy the new operators. Why I should pay for a game triple the cost. We enjoy video games but they using this for more money.
And the forums shall flood with rivers of salt. The prophecy foretold a day when the truly uneven amounts of dust in one's account shall appear and noone shan't ever feel at peace again. The fifth apostle was but herald of the horrors to come!
This is a secret achievement; its description is hidden until you earn it.
Damn, I should have used Italic letters!What I got from this: Blizzard would rather sell a fixed amount of dust and throw some packs in the bunch to abide by the rules rather than actually revealing the odds of opening up cards of different rarities.
What have you got to hide Blizzard?
anyone can tell me is there any difference between buying 1 pack per day or buying 20 packs twice a month? i mean legendary/epic drop rate
Oh, it's ok, then keep my 1-pack-per-day-grind-mode going on.
or, change it so your chances increase everytime you open a pack and announce the chances. or something like guaranteed rarities.
eg: open 5 packs, if you havent received an epic, next pack is a guaranteed epic.
eg: open 15 packs, if you havent received a legendary, next pack is a guaranteed legendary.
This is already in place except the minimum numbers are much higher.
If you open 9 packs without an epic, the next is guaranteed to contain an epic.
If you open 39 packs without a legendary, the next is guaranteed to contain a legendary.
Its just a really sucky system, HS has right now. It needs to be 50 dust per pack you buy, If you are using real money. IE if you buy 40 packs for $50 you should get 2K dust. I think it should be 50 dust in every pack no matter what, but whatever its all about the $$$.
They've given us pre-purchase bonus cardbacks for all but one expansion/adventure release since the start of the game, and that's on top of getting a better price per pack when pre-purchasing. I don't know what else you feel entitled to, but those bonuses seem plenty to me.
Que, ?,!,!.?